Former employees of the debt ridden Nairit chemical plant in Yerevan will launch a round of protests starting in mid-September demanding that the Soviet behemoth be reopened.

Karineh Shahverdyan, protest coordinator for the former employees, told Hetq that they were given a choice – either sign a document giving up the right to recoup interest on the wages owed or take the company to court.

Shahverdyan says she took the document to an attorney who described it as blackmail.  

All but some twenty former employees, who didn’t sign, have been paid their back wages less accrued interest, said Shahverdyan.

The protest coordinator told Hetq that they will now be focusing their efforts on getting the plant reopened.